Uganda bans miniskirts, pornography

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed a law which criminalizes indecency and promotion of pornography.

Henceforth, women have been forbidden from wearing clothes like miniskirts and cleavage-revealing blouses (‘tops’) that excite sexual cravings in public, unless for educational and medical purposes or during sports or cultural events.

Addressing the press at the Media Centre in Kampala on Tuesday, ethics and integrity state minister, Rev. Fr. Simon Lokodo said the President signed the bill into law on February 6, two months after its passing by the House.

Parliament passed the piece of legislation December last year.

The law creates a national anti-pornography committee responsible for its implementation by ensuring early detection, collection and destroying of pornographic materials.

The committee, whose representatives will be drawn from various sectors including the media and entertainment industries, will also offer rehabilitation services to victims of pornography.

The anti-pornography law has repealed and replaced Section 166 of the Penal Code Act, widening the legal interpretation of pornography and prohibiting it comprehensively.

‘Be decent’

According to the law, pornography means “any representation through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primary sexual excitement.”

Minister Lokodo also identified sex tease shows commonly known as bimansulo, videos or photos depicting child sex, and musicians, especially female artistes, who perform in very revealing short dresses, as the other banned acts.

“We do not like you to behave in a way that draws the attention of other people. Be decent and let your cloth show you as a decent person,” Lokodo said.

Asked to draw precise indecency lines, the minister said: “If you are dressed in something that irritates the mind and excites other people especially of the opposite sex, you are dressed in wrong attire and please hurry up and change”.

Media houses are also banned from publishing pictures of couples kissing or indecently-dressed women like those taken in night clubs, according to Patricia Achan-Okiria, the principal legal officer in the ethics ministry.

The minister described concerns from development partners over the anti-pornography bill as mere blackmail that won’t derail his office from fighting moral degeneration.